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Opposition to diverting Gila River swamps Silver City meeting

By Benjamin Fisher / bfisher@scsun-news.com

Posted:
11/29/2012 08:20:04 AM MST

SILVER CITY - It was standing-room-only at the Southwestern County Commission Alliance meeting Wednesday as a crowd of confused and passionate constituents pressed into the Grant County Administrative Building.

The Commission Alliance is a group of county commissioners from Catron, Grant, Hidalgo, Luna, Sierra and Socorro counties chosen by their respective commissions to represent them at a monthly meeting to discuss regional affairs. The group's stated purpose is to "uphold the guaranteed rights and privileges of local citizenry and the protection of our natural resources for the benefit of our citizens in southwest New Mexico."

So far, the Commission Alliance has chiefly discussed and acted on environmental issues. Their actions are usually in support or discouragement of a particular issue, usually in a letter to politicians urging them to consider their viewpoint. Several of these letters were the focus of the crowd on Wednesday.

After the pledge of allegiance and roll call, the floor was opened up to public input. Here, a stream of 16 people stepped up to the podium and were allowed five minutes each to provide their input on an issue on the agenda. By-and-large, the issue on everyone's mind was the approval or disapproval of a letter to the Interstate Stream Commission regarding the importance of keeping water in Southwest New Mexico. This issue involved current discussion of diverting water away from the Gila River and how that would coincide with the Arizona Water Settlements Act.

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Donna Stevens was first up to the microphone and voiced her disapproval of the diversion of any water from the Gila River, New Mexico's last wild river, free of diversion, damming or alteration. It became clear she was in the majority.

"I'd like to see a show of hands of people who are here to support the free-flowing Gila River," Stevens said. People had filled every seat available to the public and taken to leaning against the walls when they couldn't sit. Of all those people, all but about five raised their hands.

The public input section stretched on for almost an hour and a half, with a great majority of speakers disapproving of altering the Gila River's path in any way. Many of these speakers also mentioned their support of closing roads in the Gila National Forest.

While most of those present were concerned with strictly environmental or cultural issues, one man stepped up to read a letter from the Tea Party Patriots of Luna County. The letter was penned by Linda Pecotte and disapproved of the diversion plans for purely fiscally grounds, believing it would cost New Mexico residents far too much money.

Not everyone agreed, though.

Mike Skidmore, chairman of Keep Our Forests Open, echoed U.S. Congressman Steve Pearce's views that no roads should be closed in the Gila National Forest and approved of diversion if it meant businesses might prosper. He said he believes that environmental groups have far too much control in government and that this was a perfect example.

A number of the speakers also expressed a great deal of confusion as to just what the Commission Alliance is, what it hopes to accomplish and how it operates. So far, the Alliance has no website with information describing its foundation or mission.

After public input ended, the Alliance welcomed two presentations concerning measures on the agenda.

The first was a presentation from Las Cruces City Council member Gill Sorg in support of a new plan for an Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument. U.S. Congressman Steve Pearce has also put forward a bill for an Organ Mountains National Monument, but it includes a smaller plot of land and several other differences.

The Alliance chose to approve a letter to President Obama discouraging the new plan and instead approving of Congressman Pearce's original. The letter was composed by the Hidalgo County Commission, who had already passed a resolution against the new plan.

The second presentation regarded the purpose, benefits, current status and future of the Arizona Water Settlements Act. In her presentation, Allyson Siwik, director of the Gila Resources Information Project and the Gila Conservation Coalition, outlined the obstacles for a Gila River diversion plan and both the ecological and economical costs of diversion. She described endangered species issues, lack of a real need for the diversion and the financial ramifications. In the end, the Commission Alliance decided not to send their original letter to the Interstate Stream Commission as they had not seen all of the numbers presented in such a way before. The Alliance decided to get input on the subject from all the counties involved before they would move forward.